autograph authenticator?

gamehunter

What is this all about? Anyone ever heard of this authenticator?

[L=]http://www.angelfire.com/tv/yankeefan/[/L]

alifaxwa2

looks like the posts are 8 years old.

MooseDog

The autograph authentication "industry" is a joke. Everyone seems to want to discredit everyone else. Fact is there is a LOT of money at stake. I recently bit the bullet and submitted over 100 autographs to JSA. I have sold several at prices I never would have imagined, and only becase of the JSA certification. I would have probably only been able to get 25% of that price without. However it should be noted that the sent back as "unable to authenticate" 5 of my items, 4 of which I obtained in person.

I'm about to ship off another bulk order to PSA/DNA for sales comparison. I'm going to submit those 5 items that JSA refused to see what happens.

Here are some observations on the authenticator trashing sites.

- www.autographalert.com is Steve Koschal who has a dubious reputation and has his own authentication service www.paasaa.com he loves to point out the mistakes made by PSA/DNA and JSA in particular. He's now trying to form some organization, well read the article on the site below.

- www.autographdealernews.com does everything but call Koschal a child molester. If you read the articles carefully you can make an educated guess as to where this originates. The site seems specifically set up to bash Koschal despite the presence of other "articles". The address is a "Mail Boxes, etc" in Las Vegas.

- Your link is 8 years old but whoever posted that stuff certainly doesn't like Richard Simon.

- GAI hired a 17 year old kid to authenticate autographs. SCD published articles written by him in which he showed exemplars as "good" which were in fact autopens. While he certainly is a precocious kid, seriously, where is the experience factor.

- PSA/DNA hired two autograph authenticators last year who have dubious reputations in the field.

- The JSA "Sal Bando" scandal certainly was a black eye for JSA.

- And Let's not even get into the STAT Authentic/Chris Morales/Coaches Corner circus.


I have been collecting autographs for over 35 years. I have more experience than many on the staffs of these companies. I have dealt with hundreds of other collectors and dealers over the years and I can count the "good guys" on one hand:

1) Bill Corcoran (was associated with Koschal but now with www.onlineauthentics.com)
2) Mark Jordan (now with Heritage Auctions)
3) Richard Simon (yes he's a little arrogant but he pays well when he buys and he stands behind his sales)
4) Doug Averitt (definitely the #1 baseball HOF guy around - www.onlineauthentics.com)
5) Les Wolff (www.leswolffsportsllc.com)

All these guys are knowlegable and and fair to deal with.

There are others such as Jim Stinson, Kevin Keating, Mike Kolleth, Joshua Evans (Lelands) who have excellent reputations but when I have offered to sell things to them their offers were ridiculous, and a couple of blew me off when I approached them at shows - I won't mention which - when I told them I had a $50,000 collection for sale. I have also had good dealings with Mike Guitierrez but he's gone Hollywood now with his auctions, PSA/DNA gig, and Antiques Roadshow appearances and doesn't return my emails. I have not dealt with John Reznikoff or Albersheims so I cannot comment on them.